Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:54:52 EDT
From: Swimfan_777@yahoo.com
Subject: Model Me Part 6

Disclaimer: Anything mentioned in this story is complete fiction. The
sexuality of anyone in the story is not necessarily true, but just written
to entertain. If you are underage or if it is illegal to read pornographic
material where you live, please leave now. Also, if you are uncomfortable
with gay relationships, you should not read any farther. For everyone else,
enjoy the show....


Lance could feel his boxers getting tighter under the weight of the arm. He
wondered how he could slip away from the sleeping man without waking
him. He lifted JC's arm slowly and laid it softly on the bed after slipping
from underneath him in one fluid motion. He may not have been the greatest
dancer in the group but he could be pretty graceful when he tried hard
enough.

He padded quietly into the a joining bathroom with the intent of taking a
shower and taking care of his little "problem".

"Lance?" JC called from the bedroom.

The blonde wrapped a towel around his previously uncovered waist and poked
his head out of the bathroom door.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

JC looked up at him with those bluish green eyes, those pools of
beauty. Lance couldn't help but let a sigh slip between his full lips when
he took in the sight of him. The bronzed slim but well toned man was
lounging back on the bed, head propped up by a few pillows, face turned
toward the door, a look of concern flashing through his eyes and setting on
his lips.

"Sorry I just woke up and you weren't here."

Lance's heart went out to the man. He wanted to protect him. He wanted to
love him. He wanted to scoop him up in his arms and invade every part of
his body. To caress that soft tan skin would be like heaven to him.

"Lance?" JC asked, those perfectly arched eyebrows raising just enough to
show the slightest wrinkle on his forehead.

"Yeah?" Lance said blinking a few times to clear his head.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm good."

"Okay, well I'm gonna go grab a shower. We have to be in the studio at
10:30."

Lance nodded as he watched JC hop out of bed in his boxers, his arm and
back muscles rippling suggestively as he did so. JC left the room with the
same gentle grace he had entered the night before. For some reason this man
had a way of moving that made you want to give him a standing ovation when
he graced you with his presence. He was agile and elegant from the smallest
sway in his hips to the tight flex of his thigh muscles. Lance noticed that
his hand had drifted down his taught stomach to the tented towel around his
waist. He sighed wondering if another man would ever touch him there
again. It had definitely been awhile. After all, one can only jack off so
many times right?



***

	"Babe, you're going to be late," Craig yelled from the kitchen.

"I'm almost done," Justin said not bothering to button the shirt he had
just slipped on over his bare shoulders. "I'm seeing you tonight right?"

"Yeah. We can have dinner."

Justin walked into the kitchen and stood behind Craig wrapping his arms
around his lover's waist.

"And maybe desert?" he said taking his ear between his teeth.

"If you're good," Craig said turning around to face him.

Justin kept his arms firmly around him, resting his fingers on the small of
Craig's back. He let his lips slide lightly over Craig's, nothing too deep,
just a soft sensual kiss. When their lips parted Craig's eyes
sparkled. Justin kissed the side of his face, right by his eye, where two
tiny wrinkles settled when he smiled.

"I thought you liked it when I was bad," he said deeply in Craig's ear. He
also let his tongue slip between his teeth and left a light wet trail
around his ear, just for emphasis of course.

Craig moaned and let out a sigh. His hot breath hit Justin's neck and sent
a chill down the man's spine.

"You had to leave five minutes ago babe," Craig said softly.

"Do you really want me to go?" he asked kissing his throat and caressing
Craig's Adam's apple with his outstretched tongue.

"No," he said pulling back to look Justin in the eyes. "But you have to."

"I know," Justin said eyes downcast.

Craig lifted his chin with two fingers, "I'll make you dinner tonight."

"Really?" Justin asked with his eyes lighting up brightly.

Craig laughed, "Yes of course. But I don't want you to be late for your
meeting okay?"

Justin nodded, "I wish I could stay here with you. I miss working with the
guys and all but I barely just released my album and now were going to
start working on another one."

"Babe it's just a meeting though. You're not going to record today or
anything. You're all just going to talk about it and get organized."

"That's true. I don't know if I'm ready to go back."

"You will be when it's time."

"How are you so sure?" he asked flashing his pearly white teeth in a smile.

"Because I'm Craig and I'm never wrong."

"Oh really?"

"Yes. You'll get used to it."

"I'm sure I will," he kissed him quickly on the lips and leaned back. "What
are you doing today?"

"I have a shoot at eleven," Craig said buttoning Justin's shirt for him.

"How long will it take?"

He shrugs, "A few hours I guess. I've never worked with this photographer
before though, so who knows?"

"Is that all you have planned?"

"Why the sudden interest in my whereabouts for the day?" he asked with a
grin.

"Just wondering if you'd be free for lunch. You could catch a bite with me
and the guys."

"Really?" he asked his hands in mid air over Justin's collar.

"Yeah if you want," he said nonchalantly.

"Are you sure?"

"It's just lunch baby," Justin said running his thumb over Craig's baby
soft cheek.

Craig blushed slightly, "I know. But still, the only one I've met is JC and
that didn't really go off to well."

"But we got all of that straightened out already."

"Yeah. You're right," Craig said smoothing Justin's collar down.

"If you don't want to it's cool."

"It's not that I don't want to, I just won't be able to today that's all,"
he said turning back around to the sink.

Justin stood there looking over his shoulder as he washed the breakfast
dishes. He let his hands rest on the man's shoulders.

"I'm gonna get going," he said.

Craig nodded, "Okay have fun."

Justin frowned. They hadn't known each other for all that long but he could
tell when something was wrong with Craig. He figured it was part of their
bond.

"Do you want to talk before I go?" he asked letting his hands slip down to
his sides.

"About what?"

"I don't know. Is there something bothering you?"

"No."

"Okay, bye I guess," Justin said walking out of the kitchen. "I'll call you
tonight."

He waited for a response and got none.

While he was driving to the studio the entire conversation he had just had
with Craig went through his mind over and over again. It was like he was
putting the words through a filter in his brain to pick out where he had
gone wrong. Shouldn't Craig be happy that he wanted him to meet the other
guys? Plus, it's not like Justin was going to introduce him as his
boyfriend or anything. He would just be a friend, for now at least.

Well if this was a fight of some sort he figured that he should pull out
all the stops on the apology. After all it was their first one, hopefully
for a long time, and Justin couldn't shake the feeling that it was his
fault in some way, although the filter had siphoned nothing.

Once Justin got to the studio he had already made a few calls to arrange
some things that would hopefully show Craig that he was sorry for whatever
it was that he had inadvertently done.

"Hey am I early?" Justin said slyly when he walked into the almost empty
meeting room.

"Looks like it Jay," Chris said sipping his coffee.

"Where is everyone?" Justin asked sitting on the table close by his
friend's chair.

 "I don't know but if they're not here soon I'm leaving," he said with a
yawn.

"Late night?"

"Yeah. Dani and I had a huge fight."

"Over what?"

Chris just looked up at him blankly.

"I don't even know," he said finally looking down a bit confused.

Justin laughed loudly, "You're joking."

"No. I have no fucking idea what it was about. We were up all night
arguing, though."

"Maybe it was about you not paying attention," Justin said still laughing.

"You know," Chris said eyes wide, "that just might be it.  But I think it
may have had to do with the curtains."

"Curtains?"

"Yeah. She kept saying that I knew nothing about them."

"What's there to know about curtains?"

"That's what I said and she threw a pillow at me."

Justin started laughing harder.

"That's not funny I have a mark right here from it," he said pointing to
the side of his forehead.

"Yes Chris, fringe can kill," he said with mock seriousness.

"It was a button," he said quietly.

They looked at each other and both of them started laughing loudly.

"What's so funny?"

They both looked to the door and saw Joey filling the frame.

"Chris is getting into decorating," Justin said.

"What?" Joey asked walking into the room.

JC and Lance followed him in.

"It's a long story Joe," Chris said still rubbing his head.

"Let's get this meeting on a roll I have things to do, people to see,"
Justin said jumping off of the table and pulling out a chair.

"Don't you mean people to do and places to see?" Joey asked with raised
eyebrows.

"Ha ha funny," Justin said with a fake smile. "If no one has any more
cracks about my love life let's get down to business."

""Well I have one," Chris said raising his hand. "It's pretty good too."

"Later," JC said with a business like voice. He could always get that way
when he had things on his mind. "We need to figure out when we want to
start recording."

"Okay," Lance said. "Well Freelance is doing pretty good right now so I'm
free in a week or so."

"Now's good for me. Dani's taking care of things at FuMan," Chris said
sipping his coffee.

"Justin what about you? I know you were working on your second album,"
Lance said standing to retrieve himself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah well it's pretty much done already."

"So when is good for you?" he asked.

"Now is fine I guess."

"What's up Jay?" JC asked looking at his friend with concern in his eyes.

Justin both loved and hated that about JC. He could have so much compassion
sometimes that you just didn't want him feeling sorry for you anymore.

"Nothing's up. I'm ready now."

"What are you going to do with your album?" Joey asked.

"I'll promote it while we're recording."

"That's going to be a lot of work," Lance said sitting back down.

"I wrote and recorded Justified while we promoted Celebrity. We even
toured."

"Okay so Joey what about you?"

"Rent finishes up this weekend."

"Alright," JC said flipping through his day planner. "It looks like if we
start practicing next week. We'll have four months until our scheduled
release date. Touring we can put on hold if we have to until next January
but Johnny wanted us to try for October."

"October?" Joey said wide-eyed. "What are we animals?"

JC shrugged, "That's what he wants us to shoot for. We need to have at
least three of the songs Wade is going to choreograph completely done by
the twentieth."

"Of what?" Justin asked.

"February," he said glancing down at his book again. "Hopefully everything
will go smoothly and we'll be done before then."

"Alright. Anything else?" Joey asked.

"Nope. We need to meet at the compound a week from today. The earlier the
better."

"Maybe we should all stay there, you know like we used to?" Joey asked.

Everyone looked at him. It wasn't a look of excitement from what he could
tell. There had been a small rift in the group ever since Justin had
announced he wanted to do a solo album. On the outside everyone supported
him fully but inside there was a little resentment. Maybe because they felt
like he had abandoned the group or maybe because all of them had had kind
of the same idea but weren't popular enough to really make it work; at
least not to the extent he had. Justin was indeed a super star now, if at
all even possible, more so then when it was just Nsync.

"Guys," he said leaning in close, hands clasped around each other, "we've
been skipping over the real issue here."

All of the guys, except Justin, looked down or up or really in any
direction that wasn't towards Joey.

"What issue?" Justin asked looking around at the guy's lack of eye contact.

Joey also looked down for a second and then back into Justin's baby blue
eyes.

"Your solo career," he said finally.

"What about it?" Justin asked swallowing. Suddenly he had a huge lump in
his throat.

"You know that we're all supportive of you Jay," Lance said finally looking
Justin in the eyes.

"But..." he said slowly.

"We know you didn't mean it this way or anything, but honestly it felt like
you abandoned us a little," Chris said.

"What?" Justin asked amazed. This had to be a joke. How the hell could the
guys be jealous of him?

"It just felt that way and we thought you should know," Joey said.

"Okay, so now what? I'm out of the group or something?" he asked a little
louder then he meant to.

Everyone's eyes shot over to him like a rock coming out of a slingshot at
full force.

"Jay of course not," JC said. "No one's kicking anyone out of anything. We
just didn't want to have any secrets. You know I think Joey had a good
idea. We should all stay there for a month or so. It'll be good for us."

"Yeah sort of a bonding experience," Joey said smiling.

"Why didn't you guys tell me before?" Justin asked, calmer now.

"We didn't want to upset you or anything," Lance said. "We knew how hard it
was for you to be doing everything by yourself."

"Yeah Jay we didn't want to make things more stressful," Chris said.

Justin nodded.

All of the guys looked around at each other. They had all been together for
so long that they could almost read the others' minds'. It was a little
creepy sometimes for onlookers, but they were alone now.

"So anything else you guys haven't told me?" Justin asked looking around
the table at his friends.

There heads shook one by one.

"Then we're done here?" he asked looking around again.

"Yeah," JC said nodding.

"I'll see you guys in a week," Justin said leaving the room.

The guys sat there in silence for a moment.

"Well that could have been worse," Lance said.

"What do we do now?" Joey asked no one in particular but his eyes fell on
JC.

"We go about business like normal," JC said. "When Justin wants to talk,
he'll talk."



***

Justin had never been angrier with the guys then he was at that very
minute. He clenched his fists to his sides as he stomped to his car in the
cold morning air. He felt like a child again. They had ganged up on him. He
hated that. He wrenched the door open to his M Class Mercedes and sat in
the drivers seat, eyes closed, head pushed back against the plush leather
headrest. He squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, like he used to do when
he was a kid and had one of his temper tantrums. He couldn't believe they
would keep a secret like this from him. They had been talking about it for
months behind his back. How many awards shows had they gone to just to
watch him perform? How many times had they said in the media and in private
how proud they were of him and how much they wanted him to make it on his
own? Why would they lie to him like that? How could they? He could never
lie to them, not in a million years, not about anything in the world.

And JC, he was the worst. His best friend? Yeah right! Joshua Chasez was
the biggest traitor of them all. How could Justin ever trust him again?

He opened his eyes and glanced at his reflection in the rearview
mirror. His eyes were glassy, his cheeks were red and damp. He wiped them
with his hand and took his cell phone out of his pocket. He needed to talk
to somebody. He didn't feel like calling his mom and bothering her at
work. It wouldn't be such a bother he guessed, but ever since he had this
big "secret" he hadn't been able to talk to her. He hated keeping things
from her, he was used to telling her everything. He sighed and scrolled
down the list of names. He stopped when Craig's was highlighted and pressed
the call button.

"Hello," Craig answered breathlessly.

"Hi. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Craig said pausing to catch his breath for a second. "I was just
working."

"Oh okay. I didn't want to interrupt or anything."

"You're not we're on a break now."

"What did you guys have to do?"

"Football," he laughs. "It wasn't just pretending to play though. Some of
these guys are really tough."

Justin laughs, "I'm sorry."

"It's cool. Good exercise. So what's up?"

"Nothing. We just finished our meeting."

"How'd it go?"

"Okay I guess."

"Just okay?"

"Alright it wasn't that great."

"Talk to me."

Justin sighed, "The guys are all weird about me having gone solo. And
apparently they've been feeling that way for a while."

"What do you mean by weird?"

"I don't know. They said something about me abandoning the group."

"What?" Craig said amazed. "That's ridiculous."

"That's how I feel. I just don't see why they didn't tell me sooner," he
said leaning his head against the seat again.

"They must have had a good reason, though."

"A good reason to lie to me for over a year?"

"Justin you have to remember that they are your friends. You guys have been
so close for so long. They would never do anything to hurt you on purpose."

"I guess you're right. But it still hurts you know?"

"Yeah I know babe. Hey I have to get back to work. Are you good?"

"Yeah I'm okay."

"We should be wrapping up in a few hours. I could stop by your house and we
could go to lunch maybe?"

"I'd like that."

"Okay I'll see you around two alright?"

"I love you."

"I love you too. Everything's going to be alright, okay?"

"Okay."

Justin almost smiled when he hung up with Craig. He always felt better when
he knew he'd be seeing him soon. Justin looked up when there was a soft
knock at his passenger side window. He stuck the key in the ignition and
rolled the window down.

"Are you okay?" JC asked leaning on the car.

"Fine," Justin said trying to sound as aloof as possible.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I have to go okay?" he said looking straight forward now.

JC stepped away from the car, "Call me if you want to talk."

Justin answered with a rev of his engine and the squeal of his tires on
asphalt as he exited the parking lot.

"Or not," JC said under his breath.

"What was that all about?" Lance asked from behind him.

"Its just Justin being Justin," JC said walking past Lance towards the
building.

Lance followed him back into the office building watching his ass sway from
side to side as inconspicuously as possible. His gaze dropped down to the
floor at his feet when Chris and Joey appeared in the hallway.

"Did you guys want to catch some lunch?" Joey asked.

"I have a meeting in twenty minutes," Chris said. "Dani will kill me if I
bail on her."

"Wade's coming over to work on some more dance stuff, you guys are welcome
to join us," JC said smiling at Joey and Lance.

"I'm good," Joey said.

"Lance?" JC asked with raised eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah sure."

"Really?" they all said in unison.

"I should start working now too. Don't want to hold things up since we're
on such a tight schedule."

"Okay cool then," JC said. "We'll see you guys next week for sure."

Lance and JC walked to his car in silence. It wasn't one of those
uncomfortable silences though at least Lance didn't think so. A million
thoughts were running through his mind, 999,999 of them ending with JC's
cum down his throat, or other places as the case may be.

"You're quiet," JC said as he turned the car around a corner.

"Just thinking."

"About what?"

Lance looked at him. He wondered what JC would do if he poured his soul out
to him. What if he just let everything spill forth from his lips like a
flood, all of his feelings, wants, dreams, hopes, everything that had to do
with JC and them being together?

"Just work," he said turning to look out of his window. He was so afraid
that things would change for the worse between them that he couldn't
express himself fully to his friend anymore. He had always been able to
tell any of the guys anything, he didn't even worry when he came out to
them. This was so much different though. Just sitting in a car together
like they were doing now, like he had taken for granted so many times,
could be stopped, could be snatched away from him with one wrong move, with
one phrase slipping from his lips by accident.

Lance thought they would never get to JC's house quick enough. He only
lived about 10 minutes away from their office but it seemed like every red
light was against them that day. Smelling the mixture of JC's shampoo,
cologne, and something that could only be described as the essence of Josh
was beginning to be too much for the blonde.

"Looks like Wade's already here," Lance said noticing the small red
convertible in the driveway.

"Yeah I told him to just let himself in if I wasn't back yet."

Lance glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Obviously there was
nothing going on between JC and Wade but it still made him think. He always
figured that he wasn't with JC because he wasn't gay. Now, after all this
time, if JC did turn out to be gay and still didn't want to be with Lance
it would be...well a catastrophic end to a inane existence. Or at least
that's what an idealistic person would have himself believe. Soon Lance had
pulled himself out of his worrisome thoughts when he saw the short greeting
and minor interaction that Wade and JC shared when they walked through the
front door.

"Give me a few to change and then I'll be downstairs," JC said walking
towards the carpeted stairway. He paused on about the third step. "You
coming?" he asked Lance.

"For what?" he blurted out. The eagerness and extreme curiosity in his
voice alarmed him but the two other men in the room didn't seem to notice.

"Did you want to change?" JC asked.

"Oh yeah sure," Lance joined him upstairs. Besides hesitating just slightly
at JC's bedroom door he figured he handled the situation
expertly. Especially with all the thoughts of the half dressed man in the
room next to his flying like locusts through his brain.

The dancing session went as to be expected, sweaty, tiring, and long; but
not in the good ways that Lance could vaguely remember. He enjoyed watching
JC dance though. His body had such grace that it was quite breath taking at
times. And that little intense look he got on his face when he was trying
to work out a new dance move was absolutely adorable. The small lines in
his forehead would deepen and his eyes would narrow a bit. Besides being a
great dancer and choreographer he was a pretty good teacher as well. Lance
being someone who never was the first, or the fourth for that matter, to
get a dance move appreciated that quality about him.

"It's a little easier if you let your arms hang at your sides first and
just work on the foot movement," he explained to Lance watching him through
the full length mirrors that ran along all of the walls in the large dance
room.

"Don't forget the girl is gonna be somewhere over here too," Wade said
standing halfway behind JC's right side.

"Why don't we take it from the top so we can see how it all looks
together?" he said wiping his glistening forehead on the short sleeve of
his t-shirt.

Wade pressed a button on the stereo system and they listened as the music
played through to the part they had been working on. Since they hadn't
started recording yet JC and Justin had done a few mock ups of their first
three singles just for practice purposes. It sounded strange to JC to just
hear his and Justin's voices where it should have been the group as a
whole. It made him think of his long time friend and how he must be feeling
now. Justin had never done well with people ganging up on him. It wasn't
like the guys had meant it that way or even like it would seem that way to
anyone who had witnessed the exchange. But, as everyone knew, Justin was a
different breed. JC had tried to keep that part of the meeting as short and
sweet as possible but he could only do so much.

JC and Wade started a section of the dance. It looked as good as it could
with Wade playing the girl's part. He was much taller than JC, maybe 6'3 or
6'4, and was more muscular. Though they did have the same general body
frame, slim, long arms and legs, broad shoulders.

Lance let out a laugh that he had been trying to hold in. The picture
before him, reflected in the mirror, was just too much to handle. Wade
grinding into the back of JC's leg as they danced, the small tango number
they had thrown in at the bridge, and the dip. JC had almost dropped
him. By the time the song had ended Lance was literally rolling on the
ground.

"Alright, alright it's not that funny," JC said standing over him.

"No but it really is," Lance said between chokes of laughter.

Wade laughed as well, "Apparently I don't make the most attractive girl."

"When we hire the new dancers it'll be good."

"Hopefully none of them get hurt like Joey did. I wouldn't want Wade
standing in for my partner," Lance said finally starting to stand.

Wade pushed him back down to the ground playfully.

"Hey I was damn good in that video."

JC started laughing, "I think we're done for the day. You guys will never
be able to concentrate now."

"Sorry dad," they said in unison hanging their heads in mock shame.

JC shook his head and laughed, his long, now curled hair from sweating,
falling forward in his face slightly.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said. "Are you guys hanging out for a
while?"

"I can't. I get to go home and do paperwork," Lance said.

"Sounds like fun," Wade said extending his hand to help Lance up.

"Alright, lunch tomorrow then?" JC asked.

"Sure. I'll stop by around noon and we can just hang out."

"Okay."

For some reason JC thought Lance's departure had felt a little awkward. He
felt like he wanted to hug him or something but they didn't really do that,
especially if they were going to see each other the next day.

"Do you need a ride?" JC asked standing in the doorway.

"No I'll walk."

"Are you sure?"

"Josh I only live a block away. I'll see you tomorrow," Lance said. With
that he was walking briskly down the curved driveway and turning right once
he hit the sidewalk.

JC stood there watching as his friend disappeared behind the high bushes
that surrounded his property.



***

When the doorbell rang Justin didn't even have to look at the security
monitor mounted by the mantel in the living room. He flipped off the TV
and, for lack of a better word, ran to the door. He swung it open and was
greeted, as always, with the faint scent of Craig's cologne and that smile
that could replace the sun itself if need be.

"Hey," Craig said stepping up to the threshold and leaning into Justin's
body.

"Hi," Justin said placing his lips over Craig's softly.

The two stayed that way for a moment longer then probably needed for a
closed mouth kiss. Justin inhaled Craig's energy and strength from that one
kiss. It sounds strange but it was as if the kiss had rejuvenated him and
gave him a sense of euphoria.

"I got the flowers you sent me. The poem was beautiful," Craig said
watching Justin close and lock the front door. "You know you didn't have to
do that Justin."

"You didn't like them?" he asked sticking out his bottom lip in a pout.

Craig smiled and kissed his lips.

"I loved them. But you didn't have to."

"I know. I wanted to. Come on lunch is getting cold," he said taking
Craig's warm hand in his own.

"You cooked?" Craig asked following him into the kitchen.

"Well technically no. But don't sound so surprised."

Craig laughed, "Sorry but you do have to admit that it would be one for the
books. Justin Timberlake with an apron on slaving over a hot stove to cook
me lunch."

"It's not like I've never cooked before. I just really like this house and
I don't want to burn it down."

They both laughed as Justin served them large helpings of the Chinese food
he had picked up on the way home.

"So tell me more about this meeting," Craig said glancing up at him from
across the kitchen table.

"I pretty much told you all of it," Justin said setting down his
chopsticks. "What do you think I should do?"

Craig shrugged, "It doesn't sound like they told you to stop pursuing your
solo career or anything."

"No but how could they be that jealous of me? All of them have other things
going on too."

"Not to the degree you do. You have to face it, Justin Timberlake is a
household name now and it's not attached to Nsync anymore. And I don't
think it's just jealousy."

"You don't?"

"No. Like you said on the phone, it has to do with a sense of
abandonment. You were with them from the begging and then you just left."

Justin opened his mouth to protest but Craig cut him off with a hand
movement.

"I know you didn't mean it like that but that must have been how they
felt. People always think that feelings are so complicated but they're not
really. Emotions are the simplest things that human beings have."

"That actually makes a lot of sense."

"Was there ever any doubt?"

Justin grinned at him.

"What?" Craig asked suspiciously.

Justin placed his hand over the other man's. "Nothing. I just love talking
to you."

Craig smiled as well and gave Justin's hand a small squeeze.

"So tell me how your day was," Justin said dismissing the group's problems
for the moment.

"Pretty good."

"Did you do more summer clothes?"

"Yeah."

"Don't you get cold?"

"Not really anymore. We always have to do them in the winter."

"Why?"

"Because the catalog comes out at the beginning of summer."

"Oh. You said you had to play football right?"

Craig laughed, "Yeah. I've found about six bruises so far."

"It was really that rough?" he asked wide-eyed.

"Yes it was. We actually had to stop a few times cause some of the guys got
hurt."

"Wow. At least they can cover the bruises with make up though."

"Sounds like you've had some experience with that."

Justin laughed. "Yeah I have. It was like a year and a half ago and we were
all doing a wardrobe change for a concert. Well the place was like really
small so we had to run out to the tour bus to change. Our tour buses are
pretty big but not when its five guys trying to change into some pretty
complicated outfits in ten seconds. So anyway I was standing near Chris and
he punched me in the face while he was putting on his shirt."

"Oh my God really?" Craig asked laughing.

"During the rest of the concert I had to keep wiping my eye because it was
tearing up so badly. They couldn't even do any close ups of me for the rest
of the show because it was so red. The next few days they just covered the
bruise with make up though. Is this the hardest shoot you've had to do? I
mean like the hardest on your body?"

"Yeah I think so. I don't really get hurt that much anymore."

"Anymore? So you used to?" he asked laughing.

Craig looked down at his plate.

"What did I say?" Justin asked concerned.

Craig shook his head, "It's nothing."

"Tell me. Please?"

"It's just that I've never gotten hurt on a photo shoot before but they
have had to cover up bruises," he said meeting Justin's eyes.

"From what?"

"You mean who."

"Someone hurt you?"

"It was a long time ago, but yeah. My ex-boyfriend had a drinking problem
and he used to take it out on me occasionally."

"I'm so sorry," Justin said looking down.

"It's okay. It's over now."

"Are you okay though?" he asked.

Craig laughed but it wasn't his normal lighthearted giggle. "I'm fine. A
few broken ribs here a couple of black eyes there."

Justin stood and walked over to him and hugged him. Craig held onto him
tightly, it felt like Justin needed the hug more then he did. Talking about
it didn't really bother him anymore but he supposed that Justin had led
somewhat of a sheltered life when it came to those kinds of things. Craig
braced himself for the next flood of questions when Justin sat down in the
chair nearest him. He was surprised when Justin just smiled at him and held
his hand while he started talking about the time he broke his arm on stage.

Usually people had so many questions when they found out. Why didn't you
just hit him back? Why didn't you press charges?  Why didn't you tell
anyone? Why did you let him beat you for the better part of two years?
Suddenly he was grateful that Justin had chosen not to ask these questions
even though most of them must have been reverberating back and forth
numerous times in his mind. For some reason it was different thinking about
telling Justin all of his deepest darkest secrets. With other people he
could care less how they perceived him but he really didn't want Justin to
think of him as weak or stupid, even though he knew he was both of those
things.


To be continued...


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are much appreciated.
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